Obama delivers 'Promise’ in Ohio stop

Diana Rossetti

Sunday

Feb 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 24, 2008 at 10:54 AM

Three hours before the “Keeping America’s Promise” rally for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama was scheduled to begin Saturday afternoon, lines of supporters snaked around both sides of the building.

Three hours before the “Keeping America’s Promise” rally for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama was scheduled to begin Saturday afternoon, lines of supporters snaked around both sides of the building.

By 5:30 p.m., when the rally was to have begun, word came that Obama was en route from Columbus, Ohio. When he took the stage an hour later, the standing-room-only crowd roared its welcome.

“Obama! Obama!”

Though apologizing for his tardiness and wrestling with a malfunctioning microphone, Obama appeared unfrazzled.

“I love you, Barack,” a female voice rang out from the depths of the crowd.

“I love you back,” Obama responded.

The man challenging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic candidacy in the race to become the nation’s 44th president strode the stage, speaking animatedly of his plans.

Detractors who argue he lacks experience, Obama quipped, actually are saying, “We need to season and stew him a little longer. Boil the hope out of him. And then maybe he’ll be ready. I say we need something new.”

At another juncture, he pointed to his political experience in Chicago.

“We don’t play in Chicago. We take our politics seriously. I’m skinny but I’m tough.”

On the issues

- On universal health care: “I want everyone to have the same coverage that I have in Congress ... We will lower the premiums by $2,500 per family per year for workers. And we’re going to do it by the end of the first term.”

Acknowledging his opponent’s plan, Obama added, “The key is who can actually get it done?”

- “We will raise minimum wage every year because if you work in this country, you should not be poor.”

- On instituting pre-school programs: “Because they are all our kids, all our problems, all our responsibility.”

- On college tuition assistance, Obama wants those who receive also to give. “We’ll invest in you. You invest in America.”

- On the fuel crisis: “We will invest in alternative fuels. We will put people back to work by investing in research and development to make sure fuel efficiency in cars is higher. You can’t have Toyota and Honda creating all the fuel-efficient cars.”

- On the military: “We’ll see there is proper rotation so they are not going again and again. No more homeless veterans. No more waiting in line to go into a VA hospital. We will treat and honor our troops the way they have honored us with their service.”

- On Republican front-runner John McCain: “I am happy to have that debate. He is defending the policies of the past. I want to talk about the policies of the future.”

Early in his speech, Obama lauded the support of citizens young and old of every race and creed.

“I would like to take credit for the excitement,” he said. “But when you go to the ballot box, George W. will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin Dick Cheney will not be the ballot. I understand we have a distant relative in common. That’s embarrassing. When they do these genealogical surveys, you’re hoping to be related to somebody cool.”

The crowd roared.

Change happens from the bottom up, Obama reminded his supporters.

“You have to want to believe that change is possible,” he said. “We have to tell the fat cats and lobbyists in Washington that their days are over. They will not feed my campaign or run my White House.”

Journalists Boryanaok Dzhambazovoaok, 23, of Bulgaria and Sanjaok Vasilevaok, 26, of Macedonia, in the states on a year’s exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Voice of America, were anxious to experience and send home reports of their first American political rally.

“I think people outside the U.S. are very interested in this election,” Dzhambazovoa, a reporter for an Internet daily newspaper, said. “To see the changes that could happen here.”

“Everything could be so different,” added Vasileva, who writes for a weekly political newspaper in her homeland.

Melissa Bartlett, 28, grew up in Canton, Ohio. Now living in Akron, she, along with her mother Pam Wulffok, took her 8-year-old daughter Savannah and 5-year-old son Jeffrey to the rally because “I wanted my kids to see history in the making.”

An Obama victory, Bartlett added, “could bring a lot of good and opportunity to a lot of people.”

Stephanie Patrick, co-founder of the Canton chapter of the Leila Green Alliance of Black School Educators, said her organization endorsed Obama.

“I think he is inspirational, passionate and inclusive. He is biracial and bringing people together,” Patrick said. “Young people are excited about the process. And the older folks, we feel like we’re part of the process this time.”

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